As we say goodbye to 2018, this is the perfect opportunity to share with you all that we have been able to accomplish TOGETHER this year.

Please keep in mind that this list is simply some of our highlights and it does not include things like daily assistance given, our successful fundraisers, our hair cutting events, our work on the streets and under the bridges, and so on. Ready??

2018 Almost Home Accomplishments:

January:

Prevent homelessness for a Worth family.Kept a couple (and their fur baby) off the streets for one week.Helped a Hometown family with their rent payment.Helped a friend from the streets with a $250 car repair.Helped a new mom with a month’s worth of formula and diapers.Helped a single mom from the Worth area stay in her apartment.Purchase a brand new car seat for a mama in need.Helped a friend from the shelter fix his car title and renew his plates.Started a Blessings Bin specifically for our homeless friends at an undisclosed location.Took a friend from the shelter for an eye exam and purchased him a new pair of glasses.Helped two gentlemen at the shelter with their cell phone bills and car insurance.Helped a homeless friend with an $80 car repair.Kept a family of six in a motel for one week.Helped a Burbank couple with a variety of utility bills.Kept a single mother and her two daughters in a motel for 3 nights.

February:Raised $1,000 for an Oak Lawn family in need.Raised $900 for a local man’s security deposit and bought him a new pair of glasses.Helped an elderly gentleman from Worth avoid foreclosure.Helped an Oak Lawn family with a partial rent payment.Raised $1,200 for a homeless couple’s security deposit.

March:Pay for a monthly storage unit for a college student who is currently experiencing homelessness.Helped an Oak Lawn family get a tv and a brand new couch.Raised $1,000 for a friend from the streets to buy a car.Paid a single Hometown mom’s water bill.Gave a single (homeless) mom of two a one week motel stay.Celebrated Almost Home’s third birthday.Raised $751 for a single mother’s mortgage payment.Paid for a car repair for a Chicago Ridge family.Paid for a car repair for a friend from the streets.Helped two families with a full Easter dinner.

April:Gave a motel stay to a single mama and her little boy.Paid a cell phone bill for a family with a special needs adult. Bought this same family groceries for a month.Paid $600 to ComEd and Nicor for a family of 4 in need.Held a very successful Heros for the Homeless fundraising event.Raised $184 for a single mom’s rent payment and paid her gas bill.Helped a single Chicago Ridge mom with $300 for rent and two weeks worth of groceries.

May:Opened Blessings Box #3 at Wesleyan Community Church in Oak Lawn.Helped an Oak Lawn family avoid foreclosure by assisting with $680.Kept a homeless family in a motel for one week.Helped a single mom of two with a two night motel stay.

June:Helped a Chicago Ridge mom with a $500 rent payment.Helped a mom with a special needs child stay an additional 7 days in a motel room.We opened our 4th Blessings Box at First United Methodist Church of Oak Lawn.Kept a family of three in a motel until they found an apartment.

July:Gave a family of four a one night motel stay.Came together to provide two friends from the street with fully furnishing their new apartment.Raised $900 for a family that needed help with a security deposit.Paid for a two night motel stay and bought a walker for a friend from the shelter.Raised $300 towards rent for an Oak Lawn woman.Helped a friend from the shelter with a $50 gas gift card and a $50 Aldi gift card.

August:Helped a Worth family refurnish their home after they lost everything in a fire. We also raised $550 for them.Gifted 12 children everything that they would need for a successful school year.We raised $900 for a Veteran to get into an apartment and stay off the streets.We loved on a local mama battling breast cancer.We got a family out of the motel room that they had been living in for almost a full year and into a new trailer home.

September:Finished up Lunches with Love for the year. Together we made over 600 for our friends at the shelter.

October:We raised over $2,000 for a family that needed help due to dad having terminal brain cancer.We raised over $1,100 for a single mother battling colon cancer.Almost Home started a Drug Prevention Program (we are still in the beginning stages).

November:Raised $750 for a security deposit so that a woman didn’t have to live in her car.Helped a homeless family pay for their car reHelped a single mama with her car insurance payment.

December: Raised enough to keep the water on for a single Burbank mom.Held our first Naloxone training course and gave 27 people life-saving medication.We were awarded, through a grant, ONE HUNDRED Naloxone kits to help reverse opioid overdoses.We helped a single father provide his family with the BEST Christmas gifts.Held a Christmas party at a local nursing home where we gifted all 250 residents with a brand new gift.We had enough gifts left over to give a second nursing home gifts for all 150+ of their residents.Raised over $1,300 to help an Oak Lawn woman and her daughter get caught up on their rent.Gifted a gently used car to a widower and paid for his tax, title, plates, one month of gas and car insurance.Raised over $3,500 to lay an AH family member and friend to rest.